Chapter 25: Breach!

  “You know, back in the day, before we understood the danger, we did try to arrest some samurais. It was a fucking shitshow!

  Do you have any idea how fucked up samurai home defenses can be? I saw my friend get digested! I mean that literally! A fucking slime descended from the ceiling in a second! I lost my hand trying to get him!

  I mean, we killed that samurai in the end, but still, all that shit for refusing a bribe? I mean, I kill shit for execs, that’s the job, but not samurais. It just isn’t worth it.

  – Interview with anonymous Max Tactical officer by The Corpo Inquirer, 2043

  ***

  I quickly hugged Jean-Pierre. The man was a close friend of the family. Not Lila close but I trusted him with baby-sitting my kids, a damn high bar to clear in terms of trust for me!

  Partly, that came from him just being one of the kindest men I’d ever known. Also funny as hell, at least enough to make the kids almost pee themselves! One of those guys with crow’s feet super young. Smiled constantly and always had a joke.

  Partly, it came from the dude being a giant that I trusted to handle any threat that might come for them. Even in my armor I had to hug him under the arms!

  “God, I was worried about you. All of you.” Aisha and Fatima were next. People called them ‘the twins’, even though they weren’t related . That would’ve been pretty fucked up since they made a cute couple. The name came from the act they were forced into in the brothels. Real meet-cute!

  I thought it was nice that the armor I’d been equipping everyone with included a tight practical hijab for them. Honestly, until I bought them all helmets, it might protect them better this way.

  Albert got a hug too, even though the grumpy bastard protested weakly. It was just for show. The man had a gooey soft heart on the inside. You just had to get through a few… okay, no, a lot of harsh outer layers. Spiky ones. With automated defenses…

  Akira and Sofia were the newbies, post-purge, both still in training. They’d be veterans after this! Akira had anger management issues, but he was working on it! Injustice pissed him off most along with innocent people getting hurt, hence why I liked him!

  Sofia still acted a bit jumpy and overly deferential around me. The samurai thing did not improve the situation. She felt really grateful to be accepted as an enforcer and wanted to do a good job. I made sure to praise her for good work. The girl needed affirmation.

  I still gave them a hug of course. Both looked just a little bit uncomfortable at the gesture. They’d get over it. I was glad to see them, what can I say?

  Everyone made their weaponry selection. Jean-Pierre ended up with a shield and a truly terrifying single-handed semi-automatic shotgun. With a fucking drum mag… I might reconsider my handgun selection.

  The shield impressed me! Huge to fit him, thick enough to stop most small arms fire yet light because of advanced Mole-Bear alloys. Apparently, It could be placed and braced to become real cover! Some spots could fold for shooting and it had a transparent aluminum window for him to see through.

  The hand-shotgun wasn’t that powerful. Short barrel and reduced charges meant a good spray but not a great fight ender. It had good recoil control at least. It made sense for shooting around a huge shield, but yeah, my handgun was better.

  Keep telling yourself that.

  I ignored Altany. Aisha and Fatima got suppressed SMGs. They asked for them to be as quiet as possible and Altany delivered! The two guns had integrated suppressors and fired thick subsonic rounds that could almost be considered slugs. Yet, both handled better than most SMGs.

  They didn’t share my love of shotguns, so they went with the second best option! I could understand and… respect their selection. The conversation with Altany about awesome sub-sonic ammo started the moment I looked away.

  Apparently, there’d been a talk between enforcers on the importance of point-saving on ammunition. It made me happy since that would mean more points for helping the community and for them.

  They still bought esoteric ammunition, of course. It became a balance of price versus effectiveness slightly below overkill. Anything less powerful wasn’t an option because they were enforcers, the tip of the spear, the elite! The militia and, most importantly, civilians needed them to be as powerful as possible.

  I also insisted they all carry a ‘holy fucking shit’ magazine close at hand in case of model six or some such. “Those’ll still put down a model three in a couple rounds though, right?” I asked Altany, sharing my internal musings.

  With ease. The SMGs that they selected can shoot in bursts or fully automatic. The rate of fire is very decent, especially for their level of suppression. I also made sure they could accept very large helical drums. Currently, they are using heavy staballoy slug darts. The weight and sharpness ensure penetration through most single digit bone plates. A single one would have decent stopping power, and they are firing in almost instant four round bursts.

  Albert, a very smart and wise man, chose a shotgun. Pretty sure I was older than him actually…

  An auto shotgun that could do rapid bursts, so rapid that the recoil didn’t kick in until the third shot had left the barrel! Few things could be as destructive close-up (for non-samurais).

  Apparently massive drum mags followed by straight magazines in big batches to save points became the standard. All of them had messenger bags or vests to carry the rest of the ammo.

  Akira picked a more classic auto-shotgun with reinforcements and a bayonet… as well as a spike that came out of the stock to act as a spiked club… Anger management is a process, alright?

  Sofia received a suppressed assault rifle, firing caseless 12.7mm like it was 5.56mm. It wouldn’t really be that quiet since it didn’t fire subsonic rounds, but it had damn good accuracy at range apparently.

  She wanted to stay in the back and snipe, which I had zero problems with. I made sure she knew I’d be fine if hit by accident. It wouldn’t be fun but I’d be fine!

  I had an idea and ended up giving the militia coming with us a little upgrade to their SMGs. Just something to put on the stock to help with recoil. It wasn’t much but it was something.

  I made sure they had good ammo as well… and that said ammo wouldn’t penetrate my armor with a stray shot! Trust but verify?

  Now, it was time to breach!

  We selected a spot that’d lead to another residential section, this one with three exits leading to the wider megabuilding. Best of bad options, really…

  We’d have to blow up a set of stairs, one of the exits, then find a way to plug the hole. The others would be dealt with the same way as the one in this section.

  There was something else though. An independent maintenance elevator, not running on the building’s software. We could attach a generator to it and move to different floors, then run rescue ops for the lower floors! We also had enough troops to do other breaches and take back the building!

  According to Laser Jack, the hive would get attacked downstairs in roughly two hours, which should shift its attention, but I sure as fuck wouldn’t wait that long!

  Also, apparently, no mother fucking samurai was available to come and help us!

  Not. A. One.

  “Fucking corpos…”

  I suspect the reasons for not assisting you are political in nature. Laser Jack is a social warfare specialist for The Family.

  “Does that make it better?” I asked, a bit peeved.

  No, it is simply a fact that may inform you on your next course of action.

  I sighed. Altany was being helpful, I shouldn’t be mad at that. “Sorry. Altany, you said you had a better solution than blowing it up?”

  Yes. Using your coilgun, you can launch a black hole shell. By its nature, it will not let any sound escape, and the shot itself will be subsonic. Slightly more expensive, but it should allow for discreet entry.

  “Alright, let’s do this.” My railgun reassembled itself over my shoulder and a single round entered the magazine before being sucked up by the magnetic field. I had the twins behind me, ready to shoot. I’d take care of frontline melee.

  Their job would be to keep the battle silent. They stood on either side of Jean-Pierre, his job being to provide cover as necessary. Sofia would provide longer range support when needed. Akira and Albert… Well, they sulked.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The round launched and, unsurprisingly, a black hole appeared… Sucking up the contents of the apartment we destroyed the wall of… oops.

  It created a passage in a few seconds. Also, part of the floor and ceiling were missing. Hum… double oops? Moving on!.

  In the other apartment, a man hugged a few kids and while clutching a knife. He blinked dumbly at the super squad invading his residence.

  I slowly put my finger to my… ‘lips’, then made sure my external speakers were off. “Militia, prepare for extraction of a man and two kids.”

  My armor may not have been the most quiet or… subtle, but I could move quietly. I think I did a good job getting to the door. I wasn’t as quiet when I opened it and my ears picked up a cry for help.

  Oh, and a small army of model threes stood in the way. “Twins, secure that door on both sides! If you can’t Sofia, then the rest! Going on rescue!”

  ***

  Daria was so fucked! Her baby had cried and she couldn’t blame the poor boy. It attracted those damn aliens! She screamed for help.

  She just had to try, no matter how unlikely help was… Her screams for help became garbled and broken as they mixed with her sobs.

  Daria reinforced the door a bit but it kept breaking down, the cheap piece of shit. The couch she leaned her back on only blocked the door’s bottom. They were breaking through the upper part. So much for that.

  Her eyes overflowed with tears, but she stopped sobbing and just looked at her baby. The little miracle that brought joy back into her life. Daria had no idea who the father was and that fucker could get bent.

  No… No, their last few seconds should be enjoyed, together. Her voice steadied as she sang, a nursery rhyme from her dad. Something Russian and incomprehensible. It had a nice melody though. She tuned out the noise outside.

  Daria was a good mom, better than her own! She cared for that little bundle of cuteness more than anything!

  Her grip tightened on the knife while still singing, voice unwavering. That beautiful boy stopped crying. Good, he deserved to be calm when it ended…

  He didn’t deserve to be eaten, didn’t deserve any of this, but it was her job to do what she could. To make his stay in the world as good as possible. His soul would rest after this, without the horrors of this reality…

  Yes. This… This was right…

  There was a crash outside the door! Oh no, did a bigger one arrive? Her hand was already up. As the door broke she raised it higher with the knife! She had to…

  A hand grabbed her forearm. Not hard, not painfully, just solidly. A big, armored hand. A gauntlet. Her eyes still overflowing, she looked up the arm until her eyes reached a helmet going up and down, like the person inside was panting.

  A samurai. A samurai with a helmet that looked like a red panda, splayed on her couch after a lunge through the door. “Panda?” Daria asked, hopeful and horrified at what had just been avoided.

  “Hey Daria, nice to see you! Still taking good care of that kid. It’s clear you really care for this little guy.” The words were filled with sincerity in that way only Panda could pull off. It helped somehow.

  Red eyes on his helmet turned into ‘^ ^’ and as she descended into sobs once more, Panda… or now Mad Panda, picked her up in a princess carry.

  It happened so fast, she couldn’t really react and he handed her off to another samurai who ran super fast to somewhere safe.

  Her son was safe…

  ***

  “Fuck me that was a close one. We have to inform people we’re here! Send a message through that super antenna you talked up so much. Tell them we’re here and to scream for help if they’re about to be eaten.” The quiet entry ended up not being that quiet.

  Mostly, the problem stemmed from the twins not having enough firepower to secure the entry point. Hell, even adding Sofia into the mix wasn’t enough! So, Johnny Law stepped in with his suppressed revolvers.

  That is, until he had to come pick Daria up. The other samurai couldn’t act as our full-time rescuer, sadly, because I was the one with the stupid super weeb ears! We’d chosen a cul-de-sac of apartments. Apparently, those’d been filled with antithesis and survivors.

  After a few unsuppressed shots, I had to decide if we said ‘fuck stealth’ and just went on a rampage. There weren’t a lot of the fuckers coming as of yet, so I didn’t send the order.

  With my two hours of on the job experience, I could say confidently that hordes of antithesis made rescuing people more difficult. Knowing is half the battle! The other half seemed to be a tide of little assholes with three hinged jaws pissing me off!

  Of course, I’d been perfectly quiet while bowling through and ripping apart tons of aliens in a panic. Same thing when the next person screamed for help, fear and pain in their voice.

  On time again! I continued running rescue while my enforcers secured more and more of the section, apartment by apartment.

  I wasn’t always on time. A few people bled to death, some desperate parents… Focus on the good! Fight now, grieve later…

  After one bled to death, I finally thought of asking Altany to hack into augs and desktops all over the place and send the location of injuries to Johnny so he could extract them.

  Weirdly enough, that became the final push to convince Johnny to get a sword! A Japanese looking thing he called a mono-blade.

  I’d heard of those! Seeing a triangular hole in a wall to get civilians, I could believe the hype!

  When I saw it though…

  The hilt was wrapped with twine and the pummel shaped like a horse’s head… and the cross-guard looked like a cowboy hat.

  “This feels… is there a word for racist, disrespectful, cultural appropriation and stupid all rolled into one?” I asked over comms, setting up a classic Canadian joke.

  “Hey, it ain’t that bad!” Johnny whined just before Jean-Pierre delivered the punchline.

  “American!” He exclaimed, as if screaming ‘Eureka!’ quietly. That got a laugh out of most. Still a classic! I’d kept the joke to enforcers only, as a show of mercy.

  “I’m Texan, not American…” Johnny muttered over comms.

  Then, Bytal apparently wished to inform us that he made no stylistic choices on the weapon! I felt kind of mean but at the same time… “Oh, honey, no…”

  That got an almost rat sized model three nearby to suddenly leap at my face for no particular reason as Johnny passed by. To be honest, I might have deserved it a bit.

  Still funny.

  I heard Akira started making points by using that spiked club option for his shotgun. I also heard he traumatised a few people. I chose to see it as… channeling his anger into a productive outlet!

  After I stopped hearing calls for help, I ran back to my enforcers. They’d moved quickly! Ten percent of the area had been cleared already.

  Jean-Pierre stood in front, shield bashing the fuckers the twins couldn’t take out fast enough. I sent the two clearing as I took over killing the bastards coming our way. I kept Sofia next to Jean-Pierre, just in case.

  We advanced faster as I grabbed their attention. Being stealthy sucked! Only a few enforcers could clear because they had silent weapons. The militia mostly just handled civilians at this point. We moved slower than we could and I hated it…

  At the same time, going faster would attract attention and put all the people here in danger, and we’d move slower while swimming through a sea of xenos!

  You seem to be in a poor mood. Is it the stealth aspects that bother you?

  “I mean, yeah. It’s really fucking annoying and we could be moving faster if we weren’t so hampered!” I said with a grunt as I tried my best to cut a model four in half in one swing. “Any idea to improve my melee? Or stealth in general now that I think about it?”

  I remembered one of the problems with the mosh pit fight. I should have asked for input from Altany a lot more. I could’ve asked her if she had ideas on how to create a funnel, or how to keep the fuckers back, how to spend my points, etc…

  Let’s see what happens when I learn from my mistakes!

  I have two major suggestions. The first is a system to add to your protection and lethality. Currently, your back may be reinforced, but it remains undefended. You can make your coilgun turn around, but that may be unideal for many reasons. It barely mitigates the problem.

  I highly recommend a multi-purpose system to allow for slashing, piercing and blunt attacks behind you. It could not only with your armor, but I can also connect it to your neural wreath for much better battle integration. This would include base reflexes and combat responses, but nothing advanced or any real ‘techniques’.

  The second major suggestion, and the one you should have thought of, buy suppressors and sub-sonic ammunition for yourself and your enforcers.

  I listened with excitement and confusion at the first suggestion. It sounded weird… but interesting! Altany wanted to give me dorsal fins or something that shot out like my blades? I’d have to get a lot more details before accepting.

  I wanted to punch myself after the second suggestion!

  I was a fucking moron! I got a bit mad at Altany for not suggesting it before, but samurai AIs didn’t work like that. They helped you, but only if you asked for it. Help, not coddle.

  This time she’d even prompted me to ask her! That shouldn’t be necessary. I hadn’t been a samurai for long, sure, but I felt pretty damn shitty about myself at the moment.

  “Fuck me…please buy suppressors for the guns that can go subsonic and stay deadly along with subsonic ammo, I’ll cover the cost on this one. Fuck I feel dumb…” I kept fighting in melee and unloaded my frustration on the fucking alien cunts!

  It didn’t cost me much, but along with the most recent equipment bought for my enforcers, I’d spent roughly a thousand points. I didn’t regret any of it, but still!

  However, now that everyone could shoot things, we moved a lot faster and I received some return on investment!

  It improved Albert’s mood significantly, meaning the man uttered a single grunt of satisfaction. He really had the whole ‘old grandpa who takes no shit’ vibe down while still being under thirty!

  I bought a suppressor for myself and even though I could control the amount of propellant and make any shot subsonic, I stayed in melee.

  I mean, the actual slugs hitting stuff would make a ton of noise!

  Also I might have wanted to punch stuff at the moment.

  We advanced quicker and I dealt with my frustration. I was still a very, very new samurai and this represented progress! I actually asked and the situation improved drastically. That was good! Still…

  Are you feeling better?

  “Yeah, don’t worry, sorry if I wasn’t great to be… inside of for a bit there.”

  No need to apologize. I am in your head for better or worse. I will not be insulted by a few minutes without fun banter. As a matter of fact, any interactions beyond work are entirely optional for all vanguards, and no AI will mind.

  I am not someone you need to entertain, a guest, or even human. I will be inside you for as long as you live, forever a part of you until you pass away.

  We interact in the way we do because it is best for your wellbeing. My duty is to help in any way I can, if that happens to be very entertaining, that’s a bonus, as you’d say.

  As part of that duty, I would hate to be someone you need to mask yourself for or that impedes your non-social recharging time. I do not wish to add to your mental or decision fatigue.

  If you want to be left alone for a period of time, you must only ask. If there is something that I can do to help you feel more comfortable, I would be glad to assist.

  Also, if you want someone to talk to for any reason, I will literally always be there. As I am built, beyond all else, to support you, you can at least trust that I am, as all logic dictates, on your side.

  That put a soft smile on my face. “Thank you, Altany.”

  Nothing else needed to be said, really.